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John Stonestreet, popular author and commentator, encouraged students to see their lives as a calling and to live as stewards of their minds. Photo courtesy of John Stonestreet

by Public Relations

November 8, 2011

Worldviews are like prescription glasses: they affect everything that we see. If we have the wrong prescription, we will fail to see the way the world really is and fail to see truth. John Stonestreet, popular speaker and commentator, discussed the implications of a biblical worldview during his visit to Cedarville University on November 1 and 2, challenging the student body to think critically and to think well.

Stonestreet hosts “The Point,” a daily national radio program, and has served as executive director of Summit Ministries since 2007. He received a Master of Arts in Christian thought from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and is co-author of ‘Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview’ (Sheffield Press). Stonestreet hoped to encourage students to “see their lives as a calling.” He said that “stewardship is the best definition of what it means to be human, and as a student you must strive to be a good steward of your brain and educate your mind.”

“We live in a profoundly dehumanizing culture,” Stonestreet said. He stated that as Christians, life is a sacred act of worship for God, and he encouraged students to rehumanize the culture.

Stonestreet emphasized the significance of humanity throughout the Bible, stating that the design to rule, the scope of the fall and the humanity of Christ all point to the evidence that people are created in the image of God with unique traits and characteristics that must be valued.

He also challenged Christians to live out what they believe and to act on the words of Scripture.

“We are famous for divorcing what we believe from what we actually do in the world,” he said. “But biblical knowledge is something known and embodied.”

Stonestreet said that society often seeks to protect virtue through the rules, motivation, conviction, incentives, better education and self-actualization. But this is not the hope of the Gospel, the Gospel that is centered on the person of Jesus Christ.

“You must have a fixed reference point outside of yourself, for you will never learn to discover who you are by looking inside,” Stonestreet said.

The student body was excited to welcome Stonestreet to campus, and his message was immediately relatable to the student body.

“He took the message of the Gospel and made it a practical and logical thesis for the way we should support it in how we live,” said Cassie Gray, a junior business major at Cedarville. “At Cedarville we do a lot of learning and storing up of knowledge, and this knowledge leads to an outward spilling over of Christ.”

“I hope you guys dream big,” Stonestreet said, “And I hope you dream of making a difference in the world. But at the end of the day, your decisions determine your destiny. Your dreams don’t.”

Stonestreet encouraged students to know what is virtuous and right, to know we are not victims of our feelings and to understand that we can never be virtuous on our own.

“If you are a solo human being, you will never be virtuous,” Stonestreet said. “You have infinite capacity for self-deception.”

He encouraged students to keep each other accountable and to fellowship with other believers in order to walk the path of a virtuous life, a life that has been transformed from the inside out.

“Our hearts must be made new,” Stonestreet said. “This is the very essence of the Gospel.”

Cedarville University attracts 3,300 undergraduate, graduate and online students to more than 100 areas of study. Cedarville is a Christ-centered learning community recognized nationally for rigorous academic programs, strong graduation and retention rates, accredited professional and health science offerings and leading student satisfaction ratings. Visit the University online at www.cedarville.edu.